Talk about a hard row to hoe, Percy Mayfield sure had one. At thirty, Percy fought his way to the top of the hill with a self-penned number one R+B single, 'Please Send Me Someone To Love'. His movie-star looks and songwriting chops put him in the running to become one of the first great pop stars of the fifties but two years later, Mayfield gets in a horrendous car crash that terribly and irrevocably disfigures him.

He spends months recovering, writing and, finally, touring again. Mayfield spends the next seven years on the road, fighting depression and alcoholism. His songwriting had always focussed on a dark inner life (Percy's first published singles included 'Two Years of Torture' and 'Life Is Suicide') and the fallout from his accident fuels a number of macabre blues ballads that would become standards, among them 'Stranger in My Own Town' and 'The River's Invitation'.

By 1961, Mayfield has pinballed from Specialty to Chess to Imperial and appears to have reached the end of his career when he sells a song to Ray Charles titled 'Hit the Road Jack'. The tune is a massive jackpot and, knowing a good thing when he hears one, Ray signs Mayfield to his newly formed Tangerine label. Mayfield stays with Tangerine to the end of the sixties, but eventually moves on to write tracks for RCA Victor until the mid seventies, when he effectively retires. In 1984, not yet sixty-five, Mayfield passes away.

The two tracks I have up today showcase Mayfield's intensity, virtuosity and versatility as both a songwriter and a performer.

'The Voice Within,' on the other hand, gives a look into Mayfield's harsh inner world. Essentially a schizophrenic interior argument for suicide, 'Voice' is driven by buzzing demonic saxophones, death-march drums and a skeletal, tripping piano line. It's less a blues and more a malaise. Both songs are amazing listens and memorable melodies; if this is your first time meeting Mr. Mayfield, I imagine you'll be hungry for more.

Kim Cooper and Nathan Marsak run an occasional LA bus tour that explores some of the darker spots of Los Angeles' criminal history. Over the course of 2005, Kim and Nathan have taken their interests online, obsessively blogging the police blotters and local dustups and murders of 1947 L.A..

Recently, they've started a new project with the same bent, only they've dialed the wayback machine this time to 1907.

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